Pope Benedict XVI Presides over Final Public Mass, Calls for Christian Unity

Pope Benedict addressed religious hypocrisy and divisions within the church during his last public mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday. His final mass ended with applause and praise as the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion people plans to resign at the end of the month, citing infirmity.

Pope Benedict XVI waving to participants at his final public mass.

Highlights

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Benedict spoke boldly, telling the congregation "The face of the Church... is at times disfigured. I am thinking in particular of the sins against the unity of the Church." He added, that Christ "denounces religious hypocrisy, a behavior that seeks applause and approval. The true disciple does not serve himself or the 'public', but his Lord, in simplicity and generosity."

The 85-year-old pontiff cut the applause short, in a gesture that demonstrated true humility and devotion to God, asking the congregation, "Let's return to prayer," just before leaving the basilica.

Thousands have flocked to the Vatican to give their well wishes to Benedict, who said he is resigning for the good of the Church. He asked the crowd to "keep praying for me, for the Church, and for the future pope."

Benedict also reported feeling buoyed by the tremendous outpouring of love which he has experienced the past several days.

Benedict XVI will be only the second pope in history to resign and will step down on February 28. The Papal interregnum will last about two weeks, with the cardinals of the Church meeting on March 15 to elect a new pope.

It is unknown how long the process will take. However, most expectations are that the Church will have a new Pope by Holy Week.

According to pundits, there are several likely candidates, although the leading candidate appears to be a Cardinal from Ghana, Peter Appiah Turkson, 64. If elected Turkson would be the fourth African pope in Church history. The Catholic Church has enjoyed explosive growth in Africa in recent years.

However, a number of other candidates have been touted as possibilities including one Canadian and several from Latin America.

For his part, Benedict says he will not interfere in the affairs of the next pope. He will return to being known as Joseph Ratzinger and spend his well-deserved retirement in prayer, residing at a monastery within Vatican City.

Pope Francis Prayer Intentions for March 2015
Universal: Scientists: That those involved in scientific research may serve the well-being of the whole human person.
Evangelization: Contribution of women: That the unique contribution of women to the life of the Church may be recognized always.

In noting that the Obama administration appears to be the least friendly to religious concerns in United States history, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, in a speech to seminarians in his archdiocese this month, examined the threats to religious liberty - in ... continue reading

St.
Teresa of Avila of the 16th Century was in many ways the Pope Francis
of her day. Witty, warm and personable, she nonetheless pushed the
Carmelite order to reform. St. Teresa taught the faithful not to be
caught up with creature comforts, to be true to ... continue reading

As the minds and hearts of Christians throughout the world focus on the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, we naturally think of the Holy Land. Throughout much of history, in the land where the world's savior taught human beings to love one another as ... continue reading

Disney movies are a well-known and well-loved part of most people's childhood. These stories talk and teach us things, like believing in ourselves and follow our dreams. Recently, the stories inspire courage and kindness, as well as forms of "true love." But viewers ... continue reading

The Bible is one of the most popular published books ever written in the history of life, but also one of the hardest to read and understand. Unlike most books published today, the Bible contains a lot of statements that are full of dates, metaphors and written to ... continue reading

A
Rhode Island school district is being sued over the claim that 200
Christian teachers were denied requests to take Good Friday off from
work. The teacher's union claims that the decision denies educators the
two religious days that they are afforded in their ... continue reading

For
the first time in over 150 years, the blood of St. Januarius liquefied
in the presence of a pope this past weekend. The phenomenon occurred
when Pope Francis visited Naples this past weekend. It was the first
time the blood liquefied in the presence of a ... continue reading

Louis and Zelie married in France in 1858. They had nine children. Five
entered a consecrated or religious life in the Church. We have 218
letters which were written by Zelie. They record the naturally
supernatural pattern of a very real, human and devout ... continue reading

James was the son of Zebedee and brother of John. From faithful stock,
we see in this encounter that some forms of zeal may indeed be genetic.
In fact, the zeal in both of these brothers caused the Lord to name them
the Sons of Thunder.(Mk 3:14-17) However, human ... continue reading

Disheartening isn't it? But it has been observed that Christians are divided among themselves. This is not what God wanted, as expressed by the writings in the Scriptures. However, there are some issues between the believers that makes them not united as they should ... continue reading